To the millions of Zionist Jews in Israel and around the world, and the millions of Evangelical Christian Zionists who were behind the creation of the State of Israel and to all those who supports, funds, serve and sponsor both the Jewish Occupation of Palestine and the Jewish settlements of what remained of historic Palestine, every day must be and should be a Day of Atonement, a Yom Kippur for the sins and crimes committed all these years and are committed every day.No one can deny the need of European Jews to escape the horrific crimes of Hitler’s Germany and the Holocaust and the need for a save haven in Mandated Palestine when the doors of the US and the other European countries where closed to those who are desperate to escape the death camps in Europe.

However it is one thing to seek escape from such horrific crimes and its is another thing to disposes the indigenous and “native” people of their homes and country and exile them and make them refugees only to create a state for those refugees from Europe. To the millions of Jews who believed in the Zionist claim of a “country with no people for a people without a country” they should do nothing for the rest of their lives but seek forgiveness and atonement for being deceived with such lie and continue to live with such lie knowing well it is a lie.

The crimes of the Palestinian Nakba and all the subsequent crimes committed against those who remained in what became the State of Israel and against those who came under the Jewish Occupation of 67 and against those first wave of refuges that settled in Lebanon and in Syria is no lesser crime than that of the Holocaust. I do know this may offend those who put the crimes of the Holocaust as a “special” crime, never to be compared with any crime, but the disposition and impact of Nakba over the years is no lesser of a crime of the Holocaust; worst it is continuous one, which is even worst.

Yom Kippur also known as the Day of Atonement “ is one of the holiest days of the year for the Jews. Its central themes are atonement and repentance. On this day of a High Holidays Jews observe a 25-hour period of fast and continuous prayer with synagogues opening their doors for continuous service. Yom Kippur is the 10th day of the month of Tishrei where “according to Jewish tradition, God inscribe each person’s fate for the coming year into a book, the Book of Life, on Rosh Hashanah, and awaits until Yom Kippur to “seal” the verdict” On these days Jews work hard to amend their ways and behavior and “seek forgiveness for wrongs done against God (bein adam leMakom) and against other human beings (bein adam lechavero)”.

With that kind of God’s command one has to wonder what went wrong with the Jews? And what did Zionism do to the soul and body of the Jews to make them behave this way in Palestine toward the Palestinians inside and outside of Palestine?

One has to wonder what kind of people who believe in the words and commands of God and who observe such High Holy Days can do what they are doing to the Palestinians people day in and day out specially in the West Bank and Gaza where people have to endure crimes that are too horrific to imagine. No one can convince me a true believer in God can simply go out armed with a gun and rob the people of their land only to build on it his Jewish settlement reclaiming the “Promise Land”. Did God really promise the land to this kind of people, the armed Jewish settlers and terrorists?

No one can convince me a true believers can simply target a child or an old man, shoot at them with a tank shell or empty a whole clip of bullets in the body of fallen young school girl to confirm a killing or shoot a tank shell directed toward school children as they sat in class. No one can convince me a true believers in God can make hundreds of people, young and old, men and women, sick or poor wait at check points while they sort out a pizza delivery among themselves or hold thousands of people in wait while they force a young Palestinian to play his violin and make fun out of it.

No one can convince me that true believers can accept even justify the house demolition of Palestinians simply because they “ have no permit” knowing well that Palestinians are simply denied building permits period. No one can convince me true believers have a right to disposes someone of their homes bases on fraudulent “title” forgetting and denying the rights of the Palestinian people to their homes and farms left behind, not one but hundreds of thousands of homes and farms. No one can convince me that true believers enjoy the killings of innocent people knowing well that these people not only unarmed but do not pose danger. No one can convince me true believers can stand up and even cheers as Gaza is shelled and with building collapsing and going up in smoke and hospitals and schools are targeted and are shelled with powerful tank shell forcing the collapse of entire buildings knowing well there are many innocent and unarmed people inside. No one can convince me true believers can target an apartment and shoot a tank shell at the family of a physician killing his two daughters while he was being interviewed by Israel television.

Worst is the justifications many Jews especially those in the US give to the many crimes that are committed by the Israeli soldiers and settlers alike on a daily basis. Support and justifications they give to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from East Jerusalem, support and justifications for the Apartheid Wall knowing damn well it is not a security wall but a wall of theft to steal and rob people of their land and homes and water. One could understand the blind hate instill in these die hard Zionists but one could never understand the silence of so many “not so much Zionists” but true Jews believers in God and in the Torah and who for centuries where the light unto other nations.

How can a true believer in God simply uproot a century old olive tree simply because it belongs to a Palestinian? Or how any human being could accept the poisoning of water wells of poor farmers kills their livestock and burns their orchards of figs, almond and olive trees and does it just for the hell of it? How can any true believer cheer the cold-blooded murder of scores of people as they pray in a shared house of worship holly to Jews and Muslims and enshrine the name of the murderer as a hero? I also wondered how can a true Muslim believer cheers and distribute sweets at the house of a suicide bombers knowing well he killed so many innocent Jewish people?

With these kind of crimes and with the justifications and silence of the majority of Jews in Israel and around the world they give to their state and to the settlers one truly has to ask if Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement has any meaning at all. One can only wonder what God thinks of His People and wonder what Zionism did to the followers of his many prophets and what happened to the people of Abraham, Moses, Isaac, Solomon ( Sulaiman) Jacob and the many prophets of the people of Israel. Zionism changed all of that and canceled what God did over thousands of years. Yes, Zionism did win over God. To every Israelis, every silent Jew, to every Zionists and to every members of US Congress, every day should and must be a Day of Atonement.

Somne from Israel has the same idea.. yes, indeed there must and should be atonements for all the crimes committed agains the Jews and against the Palestinians.

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* Published 01:15 20.09.10
* Latest update 01:15 20.09.10

Time for atonement
The least that Netanyahu can do to atone for the wrong he caused the State of Israel by the incitement against Rabin is to do what Rabin was then on the way to doing.
By Merav Michaeli

The rumor mill regarding the intentions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the talks with the Palestinians is fueled by the fact that he has shaken the hand of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, called him “my partner in peace,” hosted him in the prime minster’s official residence and hoisted the Palestinian flag. These are symbols, but symbols are important, just as Yitzhak Rabin in a keffiyeh or an S.S. uniform were important symbols.

The things that Netanyahu is doing are reminiscent of the terrible things that Netanyahu said about Rabin when the latter shook Yasser Arafat’s hand far less joyfully than Netanyahu shook that of Abbas: “master of submission,” “hero of surrender,” “fell on his head,” “losing his senses,” and let’s not forget “The Israeli government in its blindness is allowing [Arafat] to implement the first stage in his plan: the destruction of the Jewish state.” Netanyahu said these things while standing before the masses that were screaming “Rabin is a traitor,” “Death to Rabin” and “We want revenge.” We can wonder what Netanyahu would have said had Rabin been the one hosting Abbas in his home.

Netanyahu has never offered an alternative to “Rabin’s path.” He has never, for example, proposed an annexation of the territories, a unilateral disengagement or transfer for the Palestinians. Netanyahu has never made any concrete proposal. But he has never admitted that the path he is ostensibly following now is “Rabin’s path”; he is behaving as though he were the first to think of the idea of a Palestinian state. To the same degree, Netanyahu has never taken responsibility for his leading role in the incitement that preceded Rabin’s assassination.

I know that talking about Netanyahu’s responsibility for that incitement is already considered a cliche, an oft-repeated leftist statement, and that the time that has passed since the 1995 assassination has caused the picture to fade and the responsibility to be forgotten. But time has not made this responsibility irrelevant. The opposite is the case.

Because what Netanyahu is doing now is simply using the symbols of “Rabin’s path.” He is not the first, of course. Since Rabin’s assassination, all our prime ministers have used the symbols without doing the thing itself, and have only caused us damage. But when Netanyahu does that, it’s really intolerable – both because of his role in the developments preceding Rabin’s assassination and because there is a good chance that he is doing it cynically, only as a means of achieving some quiet time during his term of office.

It must be said for the record that in light of the use Netanyahu is now making of the symbols of “Rabin’s path,” it is his responsibility to atone for his deeds at the time of Rabin’s death.

The least that Netanyahu can do to atone for the wrong he caused the State of Israel by the incitement against Rabin is to do what Rabin was then on the way to doing. The only way he can compensate for the lost years, for those who died in vain, for the fear and seclusion that he has brought upon us ever since, is to do that basic thing to which he has never proposed an alternative: make a peace treaty with the Palestinians.

There are few people who get such an opportunity to repair an injustice they have caused. It is not clear what Netanyahu has done to deserve it, and it’s not clear whether he knows how to do it. In order to help himself do so, he can recall the tremendous support Rabin had when he signed the Oslo Accords, and the amazing public euphoria. Since Rabin’s assassination, Israel’s society and leadership have been behaving as though it were the Palestinians who murdered Rabin. Well, they didn’t. Seeing Bibi next to the Palestinian flag is an excellent opportunity to recall how we arrived at this point, and to close the circle.